Most of the current weather and weather forecast information used by individuals is obtained by them from weather reports provided by local television and radio stations. Such reports are typically prepared by meteorologists at a television or radio station serving a particular geographical area, e.g., a large city and surrounding environs. The reports are based on current weather information available to the meteorologist which may be provided by various local (e.g., local radar) and national (e.g., NEXRAD radar and weather satellite) weather information sources. A meteorologist may also employ computer implemented weather forecasting models in preparing a weather forecast report. A meteorologist may prepare and/or update several such reports throughout the day, and such reports may be provided as part of periodic radio and/or television broadcasts. Such weather reports and forecasts may also be provided in printed form, e.g., in a daily newspaper. A person who is interested in the current or forecast weather conditions for a geographic location accesses such a weather report by tuning in to the television or radio broadcast of the report at the designated time, reading the paper, etc. If severe weather threatens a particular area, an emergency radio or television broadcast may be made to provide such information to the public immediately, and, if necessary, continuously. For example, a television station may provide a graphic indication of the general location (e.g., county) and nature of severe weather, (e.g., tornado, and thunderstorm warnings, etc.) as part of its television broadcast, throughout the period during which severe weather threatens an area.
A severe limitation of such conventional weather reports and forecasts is that they are generalized over a large geographic area and, typically, an extensive period of time. For example, a typical conventional weather forecast will provide predicted high and low temperatures, sky conditions, precipitation, etc., for the day, or for several days, for a particular geographical area, e.g., the city where the television or radio station is located and the surrounding area. However, the actual current and forecast weather conditions for the downtown area of a city, the suburbs, and surrounding rural areas will, of course, be different. For example, different areas in and around the city will achieve different high and low temperatures at different times during the day, and precipitation will reach different points in a television station's viewing area at different times during the day and at different levels of intensity. A meteorologist's forecast may indicate that some areas within a television station's viewing area will receive significant precipitation during the day, while other areas will receive none (e.g., a forecast of “widely scattered showers”). Thus, generalized weather conditions and forecasts for a particular area, e.g., a television or radio station viewing and/or listening area, may be of limited use to any particular individual, especially individuals living or working outside of a central city area, in that such general information will not provide an accurate indication of, e.g., high and low temperatures and sky conditions at any particular time during the day at that individual's home or place of work, and when, how much, or even if precipitation will arrive at that individual's home or place of work. Businesses, in particular, may require more specific and detailed weather forecast information. For example, the forecast weather conditions at a particular construction location may be used to decide which activities will take place at that site on a particular day. Generalized weather forecasts for a relatively large area are of limited usefulness to such businesses.
Advances in computer connectivity technology have allowed television and radio station meteorologists and other weather information service providers to provide access to their latest weather condition and forecast reports via computer over the internet at any time desired. Thus, an individual need not try to catch the local television or radio broadcast of a weather report to get the latest weather information. An individual may be able to access weather reports and other outdoor information for both local and remote geographic locations via computer over the Internet.
Complex weather forecasting models exist which can be used to generate accurate and detailed weather forecast data for narrowly defined geographic locations and periods in time. An example of such a weather forecasting model is the ADONIS model, available from Weather Central, Inc., of Madison, Wis. This model is based on a three-dimensional weather forecasting model of the atmosphere developed originally by Colorado State University and the University of Wisconsin. This model is a non-hydrostatic model, which therefore takes into account changing atmospheric moisture conditions, as well as topography, snow cover, etc., in generating weather forecast data. The model is, therefore, highly accurate. Some weather forecasting models, including ADONIS, are capable of producing weather forecast data with both high geographic and temporal resolution. For example, the ADONIS model may be run to provide detailed forecast data (e.g., temperature, sky conditions, wind, precipitation, etc., for, e.g., up to 25 different vertical levels of the atmosphere) for geographical areas only a few miles across and in half hour increments extending several days into the future. By extrapolation between such closely spaced points for which weather forecast model data is generated, accurate forecast weather conditions for any modeled time at any point in a modeled geographic area may be obtained. To be useful, such highly detailed models must be capable of producing thousands of near-real-time individualized weather forecasts in order to be useful to individuals requiring precise pinpoint forecasts.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,987 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/686,029, both entitled System and Method for Providing Personalized Weather Reports and the Like, describe a system and method for making use of such highly detailed weather forecast models for generating weather reports and the like which are precisely computed automatically for a particular individual user's geographic location, e.g., home or work, and which may be provided automatically, over a variety of media, such as the Internet, directly to the individual user or business. In accordance with the invention described in these references, a user establishes an individualized user profile in which the user defines a particular location of interest (e.g., home or work), and a contact address (e.g., e-mail address or pager number) to which the personalized weather report is to be delivered. The user profile may be established by the user via a user profile graphical user interface provided to the user over the Internet. Alternatively, or additionally, an address at which the personalized weather report is to be made available, e.g., a personalized Internet web page address, may be generated automatically and provided to the user. A detailed and accurate weather forecasting model is run to provide high geographical and temporal resolution forecast data. This high resolution forecast data is compared to the individual user profile and a personalized weather forecast and report for the particular location of interest to the individual is generated and provided directly to the individual, e.g., made available to the user at the user's personalized Internet web page address. The high resolution weather forecast model data may, optionally, be constrained to within certain limits, e.g., using constraints established by a meteorologist, before the model data is used to generate a personalized weather report. Personalized weather forecast reports provided to the user may include detailed information on forecast weather conditions, e.g., high and low temperatures, the times those temperatures will be reached, sky conditions, wind conditions, whether or not there will be frost or dew, etc., for the specific user location identified by the user in the user profile. A summary personalized weather report may be provided, e.g., as an e-mail message, to the user's contact address, with a link to the user's personalized internet web page provided therein. Detailed weather forecast conditions for periods (e.g., hours) throughout a day are provided in an easily readable form, such as a tabular form, wherein, for example, high and low temperatures, periods of precipitation, etc., are highlighted.
What is desired, however, is an improved system and method for presenting personalized weather report information to users in an improved user interactive manner.